5 ms·

I don't think allowing non-english characters in legal names is a rabbit hole Americans should be ok with opening.

dariusj18 6y ago
I imagine trying to purge voter roles when someone moves form one state to another. But the different states allow different characters. In Florida we start allowing emoji.
hprotagonist 6y ago
Hafþór is a perfectly fine name! speaking of icelandic naming rules being pretty draconian..
- kzrdude 6y ago
  Yes, most people on this forum would find that their name is not on the icelandic list (But if lucky, there might be a similar one). One reason is that they want names to have endings that work well with icelandic grammar (forming genitives and other cases). https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/List_of_approved_Icelandic_female_names https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/List_of_approved_Icelandic_f... https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/List_of_approved_Icelandic_male_names https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/List_of_approved_Icelandic_m...
jedberg 6y ago
Why? We don't have a national language, why should names be limited to english characters?
- ciarannolan 6y ago
  Of course we have a national language, but it's de facto rather than de jure.
- naniwaduni 6y ago
  The lack of an official language should not be confused with the lack of a national language. There is definitely a (deeply entrenched) national language.
  - eesmith 6y ago
    Let's assume that's true. English characters include vowels with a diaeresis, as Chloë and Zoë for first names, and Brontë for a last name. The New Yorker and a small number of other publications continue to use the diaeresis for words like coördinate. English also uses non-ASCII characters in a number of loan words, like née and açaí. A quick check of the members of the US House, I see Raúl Grijalva of AZ, Tony Cárdenas, Linda Sánchez, and Nanette Barragán of CA, Jesús "Chuy" García of IL, Ben Ray Luján of NM, Nydia Velázquez and José E. Serrano of NY, and Jenniffer González of PR. 9/438 members is about 1%. A check of geographical names shows places in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, New Mexico, and elsewhere with non-ASCII characters in them. That strongly suggests that "(deeply entrenched) national language" of the US does not restrict itself to ASCII letters when it comes to naming, but - like loan words - includes words and orthography from other languages.
slyall 6y ago
Does that include spaces and dashes? No "Billy Bob" or "Sue-Ellen" ? Plenty of people already have these names ( Beyoncé to pick somebody famous, born in Texas ). What is your reasoning why they shouldn't be allowed anymore? https://www.babygaga.com/25-names-that-have-more-than-letters/ https://www.babygaga.com/25-names-that-have-more-than-letter...
- lmm 6y ago
  That we should have a simple standard so that names serve their purpose: everyone should be able to read them, distinct names should not be confused for each other, and the same name should always be written identically. Yes, I'd support banning spaces and dashes - speaking as someone who's obliged to use a mispronunciation of my own name because that was what was reported to the authorities when I first moved here.
  - slyall 6y ago
    So only one version of "Joe" and "Jo" or "Matthew" and "Mathew" ? I think this will happen right after the US adopts Metric Time.
    - etrabroline 6y ago
      Lots of nice countries to live in do that.
  - tomjakubowski 6y ago
    The Jons and Johns of the world will never let your vision come to be.
- BurningFrog 6y ago
  To the extent than names are part of official government records, the government needs to set some limits for what it's systems can handle. I think emojis and cyrillic alphabet characters should be kept out, for example.
  - 6y ago

I imagine trying to purge voter roles when someone moves form one state to another. But the different states allow different characters. In Florida we start allowing emoji.

hprotagonist 6y ago

Hafþór is a perfectly fine name! speaking of icelandic naming rules being pretty draconian..

kzrdude 6y ago
Yes, most people on this forum would find that their name is not on the icelandic list (But if lucky, there might be a similar one). One reason is that they want names to have endings that work well with icelandic grammar (forming genitives and other cases). https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/List_of_approved_Icelandic_female_names https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/List_of_approved_Icelandic_f... https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/List_of_approved_Icelandic_male_names https://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/List_of_approved_Icelandic_m...

jedberg 6y ago

Why? We don't have a national language, why should names be limited to english characters?

ciarannolan 6y ago
Of course we have a national language, but it's de facto rather than de jure.
naniwaduni 6y ago
The lack of an official language should not be confused with the lack of a national language. There is definitely a (deeply entrenched) national language.
- eesmith 6y ago
  Let's assume that's true. English characters include vowels with a diaeresis, as Chloë and Zoë for first names, and Brontë for a last name. The New Yorker and a small number of other publications continue to use the diaeresis for words like coördinate. English also uses non-ASCII characters in a number of loan words, like née and açaí. A quick check of the members of the US House, I see Raúl Grijalva of AZ, Tony Cárdenas, Linda Sánchez, and Nanette Barragán of CA, Jesús "Chuy" García of IL, Ben Ray Luján of NM, Nydia Velázquez and José E. Serrano of NY, and Jenniffer González of PR. 9/438 members is about 1%. A check of geographical names shows places in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, New Mexico, and elsewhere with non-ASCII characters in them. That strongly suggests that "(deeply entrenched) national language" of the US does not restrict itself to ASCII letters when it comes to naming, but - like loan words - includes words and orthography from other languages.

slyall 6y ago

Does that include spaces and dashes? No "Billy Bob" or "Sue-Ellen" ? Plenty of people already have these names ( Beyoncé to pick somebody famous, born in Texas ). What is your reasoning why they shouldn't be allowed anymore? https://www.babygaga.com/25-names-that-have-more-than-letters/ https://www.babygaga.com/25-names-that-have-more-than-letter...

lmm 6y ago
That we should have a simple standard so that names serve their purpose: everyone should be able to read them, distinct names should not be confused for each other, and the same name should always be written identically. Yes, I'd support banning spaces and dashes - speaking as someone who's obliged to use a mispronunciation of my own name because that was what was reported to the authorities when I first moved here.
- slyall 6y ago
  So only one version of "Joe" and "Jo" or "Matthew" and "Mathew" ? I think this will happen right after the US adopts Metric Time.
  - etrabroline 6y ago
    Lots of nice countries to live in do that.
- tomjakubowski 6y ago
  The Jons and Johns of the world will never let your vision come to be.
BurningFrog 6y ago
To the extent than names are part of official government records, the government needs to set some limits for what it's systems can handle. I think emojis and cyrillic alphabet characters should be kept out, for example.
- 6y ago